Performance artists invited to take Residency at Aurora Cultural Centre

By Brock Weir

If you are a performance artist – whether you're a musician, composer, or even an actor – looking for local opportunities to hone your craft, consider applying for a new residency program at the Aurora Cultural Centre.

Applications for the Centre's latest residency program, Brevik Creates, are due next Friday, December 20, at 11.59 p.m., and the program is open to artists practicing a variety of disciplines, and will take place in January and February of 2025 in the Centre's historic Brevik Hall.

“This new residency opportunity is open to professional and aspiring performers in need of opportunities to grow their work in an environment conducive to creation,” says the Centre. “Brevik Hall is an ideal creative space to advance new or evolving repertoire. Applicants are invited to submit a package outlining a proposed project that aligns with one of the Centre's performing arts programs, including adult concert series in multiple genres, family programming, including theatre, music, dance, puppetry, multi-disciplinary work, programming geared to toddler audiences, as well as programing built for Kaleidoscope in the Schools, a unique JK-Grade 4 touring program.”

According to Derek Andrews, Performing Arts Manager for the Aurora Cultural Centre, the organization's return to their traditional home base at the historic Church Street School within the Aurora Town Square complex allowed the Centre a fresh look at how they use spaces.

“Brevik Hall being the spot where concerts and many other types of gatherings took place, it's fitting into this idea of Brevik Creates as a space for residencies amongst several other things,” he says, noting Trillium Grants have allowed for the installation of new lights and a sound system in the space.

The idea for providing further residency programs was spurred by studies showing there is a shortage of creative spaces within York Region for artists to develop their respective crafts. Aurora Town Square, he says, has a “lot of capacity to become a cultural hub” with opportunities to “provide space for people to do the work and practice.”

For this particular program in Brevik Hall, Andrews says he and the Cultural Centre team wanted to “maximize the flexibility” for interested applicants across a wide field of disciplines.

“While I, as the Manager of Performing Arts, am focused more on music than anything else, family programming is an important area of the Cultural Centre; but the space is there as a playground for the artist to work with and adapt,” he says. “We can adapt to their needs. I have worked in other situations where an institution wants to develop relationships with artists and help them develop their work. Sometimes it takes a long time for new work to mature, it needs to workshop, needs to be practiced, and that's what we're there for: the space is available for that purpose and, ideally, we will see some of the results on stages in the future.”

An incentive to apply is indeed that: the opportunity to perform at the Centre.

Future residency opportunities are also planned for the year ahead.

“In January and February, we want to activate the space for residency, for people to take advantage of a wonderful new facility in the community and we want to assure people we will act promptly with enquires and help them along the way with anything that they need,” says Andrews. “Keeping in mind that not everyone is familiar with the history of the building and how the schoolhouse… it has served a lot of purposes and is multifaceted that way and has a great legacy. It has a wonderful history, so we want to see it as a creative space that is surrounded by gallery space, by studios, by the museum, a wonderful café – it's a remarkable component of what is a massive investment in culture in Aurora.”

For more information, including how to apply for Brevik Creates, visit auroraculturalcentre.ca/brevik-creates.

By Brock Weir